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Monday, March 19, 2012

Comfort in Waiting

We all have those moments when we cry out to God asking for His grace or His mercy upon our circumstances. These are those moments when we lay down everything before His throne and plead for Him to intervene in our life's chaotic journey.

The Word of God tells us that He knows our requests and needs even before we have uttered the words to it! (see Matthew 6:32) And His Word reassures us that as long as our hearts are in-tuned with Him and our souls are right with Him, God HEARS our prayers (see Proverbs 15:29 and Psalm 4:3). As we allow this truth to sink into us we ought to realize that there is comfort there already. Knowing that the Almighty God, whose throne is in heaven, HEARS the prayers of us mere human beings is comfort in itself already. But we know the hardest part is the next step, which is waiting upon the Lord's response to our prayers.

Waiting is perhaps the most difficult and most challenging thing to do in this life. We all have that time when we have to allow life to take its course as we wait for things to change, for results and outcomes to be seen. As believers, we know that waiting involves FULLY TRUSTING in the Lord's PERFECT WILL to come to pass in our lives--which is in reality, EASIER SAID THAN DONE!

Isaiah 40 edifies our spirits as we wait upon the Lord. Perhaps one of the most well-known and well-loved verses in the Bible, Isaiah 40:28-31 reminds us of this truth...

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Notice that verse 31 tells us that they that wait upon the LORD shall RENEW their strength. I love it that the Word of our God acknowledges the fact that the waiting game can zap the life out of us! It is never easy to wait, especially if the waiting period for an answer to our prayers has turned from days into years. But Isaiah 40 shows us just how much our Father in Heaven KNOWS our frailty and our "easy-weariness".

His Word promises us one thing... when we DO wait upon HIM, we shall regain our composure and we shall renew our strength. Take note of what His Word says... HE will be the one who will give power to the faint... HE will be the one who increases our strength! No wonder we read in Isaiah 40 verse 1 the very words of God Himself speaking and breathing Peace into one's soul "Comfort, my people... Comfort ye..."

God made sure that we will KNOW that HE is aware of our tendencies to become weary during the wait. But He didn't end in just letting us know that, He goes on to COMFORT US as He MAGNIFIES HIMSELF and reminds us of WHO HE IS in the bulk of Isaiah 40. Just read verse 10 down to verse 29 and you will see what God is doing in the midst of these verses! He is basically straightening us up and making sure we re-focus on the very fact that HE IS GOD!

The wait indeed may get us down and we may even fail and become discouraged sometimes as we give in to the pressures around us. We tend to lose our sight on the perfect end that we know God has prepared for us and we tend to have our eyes wander off of JESUS and His promises!

The wait can get us weary, especially if we have pleaded for years and years about the same thing before the throne of God. BUT, we can take comfort in knowing that God Himself made sure that we KNOW one very crucial Truth that makes waiting for HIS answer and HIS perfect will to pass worthwhile...

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

(Isaiah 40:8,KJV)

There is comfort in waiting and waiting upon the LORD because we know that He knows our every need and He knows the very details of our hearts' cry. There is comfort in waiting upon the LORD because we know that He hears our every cry and plea from His throne in heaven. There is comfort in waiting upon the LORD because we can fully trust His promises in His Word for they are TRUE and they WILL stand for ever. Things may change around us and time may pass us by, but we know that whatever the LORD has spoken in His Word for our lives SHALL COME TO PASS.

And perhaps the greatest comfort there is for those who wait upon Him is the fact that in the end, after all the dust settles and we've learned and grown and matured in our walk with God as we wait on His perfect timing and answer for everything we've surrendered to Him, we know that HIS WORK all throughout the time of our waiting and upon the time of His answering will ultimately bring GLORY TO HIS NAME...

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD,

make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low:

and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:

And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together:

for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. (Isaiah 40:3-5, KJV)

The ultimate end and goal of our waiting is to have the glory of the LORD revealed in and through everything that He has done, is doing and will continue to do in our lives! Everything is ultimately for HIS GLORY not ours! Therefore, we can indeed take comfort while waiting because we know that in the end, ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THEM THAT LOVE GOD, TO THEM WHO ARE THE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE (Romans 8:28).

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